Dreamspeakers

"We have two minds. One thinks, the other knows. The mind that knows goes back many lifetimes. This is the mind of the one heart, of all things: the trees, the plants, the clouds, the rivers, the mountains. The more time you spend with this mind, the more you will see Spirit around you."

– Forrest Hayes, Na Bolom: House of the Jaguar

Unlike the Verbena, the Dreamspeakers (renamed Kha'vadi in the 20th Anniversary Edition) represent the "nicer" side of natural magic in Mage: The Ascension. Based off of more, quote-unquote, tribal types of Magic, they listen keenly to the voice of the earth amidst the chatter of modern life.

History

The Dreamspeakers are probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest form of Magic in the World of Darkness; formed from an understanding that (according to them), the first souls interacted with matter, and the first spirits created the Spirit Realm. Their go-betweens for the mortal world and the spirit realm were in fact the first Dreamspeakers, and they've held this position for millenia throughout history in cultures that venerated spirits and the spirit world. As an official Tradition, they came into being in 1466 at the Grand Convocation as the culmination of a shared brotherhood (or spooky tribal magic, if you were european) of shamanist practice. From there...well, ask most tribal cultures how they're doing post-1600, and I'm sure you'll get a good answer on why they're so cagey around other Mages and why their magic is having trouble working like it used to.

One thing that definitely became a major sticking point for the Dreamspeakers throughout the 20th century is that continued severence from the spiritual world by the Technocracy has begun to create active "holes" in the Spirit Realm where it's VERY obvious that there is a clear absence in the Spirit Realm that is causing something bad...but they don't quite know what, and are looking to figure it out before the problem gets worse.

While their traditional seats of power are considered to be Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; their diversity goes even farther than that. The Tradition is one of the most prominent in Japan, as Shinto doctrine falls under their auspices. Siberia is another bastion, sparsely inhabited and with spiritual traditions still practiced by its scattered peoples (not for nothing that the word "shaman" is Siberian in origin). There are also a fairly small but still notable number of spiritualists in the Victorian tradition, though they tend to be regarded as dabblers and tourists by those with more entrenched cultural roots.

Field guide to Witch Doctoring

The Dreamspeakers are unique among the traditions due to their Reality Paradigm being very different from that of the other traditions. Instead of assuming a spark of the divine comes from a single source, or from an individual effort, the Dreamspeaker understands that pretty much everything has a spark of spiritual connection born inherently from nature itself, as befitting the Seat of Spirit. If you properly venerate and consult with those spirits, they'll reward you with their time and with whatever thing you happen to want to occur, and strive to bring the living world and spirit world into a perfect harmony; man and spirit helping and venerating in equality. That said, the spirits are to be treated with utmost respect; things in the Umbra are far more powerful than the average Mage is expecting, and thus Dreamspeakers spend quite a long time learning how to properly make both deals and discussion with them in ways that don't involve spirits of "bleed-out-the-ass disease" leaking out onto the nearest city block.

They are paradoxically the most social of all the Traditions due to their historical place of veneration in a great many cultures; but also the slowest to trust outsiders to their respective communities, cultures, and their Tradition in general, though not because of any pettiness. The Dreamspeakers have been through a lot; slavery, ignorance, betrayal, oppression, you name it. Hell, aside from the Verbena and Cult of Ecstasy, the majority of the council still looks down on them in a very paternalistic way even though several of them have actively done this Tradition wrong. Which is a shame, because being a spirit warrior fucking rules.

Well, them and the militants who just want a larger and better connected organization at their backs. Dreamspeakers are often notable (or frustrating) for their extremely varying interpretation of pretty much everything; being a Shaman means knowing the appropriate rituals for the spirits in your surroundings but how you go about approaching such a thing is entirely up to you and how you interpret how those spirits are interacting with the real world. Three Dreamspeakers could come to three entirely different conclusions on how to chop down a tree using magic; one seeing a spirit of sickness that must be dispelled, one seeing the tree's spirit that must be released from a prison that died too fast, or a vessel for mighty spirits to prove their worth to a and all of them would be correct. It's extremely confusing if you see the world away from their perspective, but all would be satisfied that the tree fell without an axe because the spirits were appeased. That said, not all Dreamspeakers are shaking chicken bones and sticking needles into dolls in order to get the spirits to do what they want; there are indeed those who seem to be able to find the spirits within technology and can make it do wondrous things, but the stereotype of the dancing and chanting tribal chief remains.

The Ways Old and New

Dreamspeakers don't really have a hierarchy in any way that matters beyond age and experience with the Spirit World; apprentices are chosen from within their communities and are coached up until the Master (and the spirits) decide they've learned enough; at which point they become the masters themselves. Most adherents of their way meet in the Nevada desert once a year to update everybody on what the hell's going on in their particular faith/culture/faction, and then leave peacefully having satisfied the idea that they are a unified front through this specific ritual.

While there are factions of Dreamspeaker, it is largely based on shared methods of interacting with the spirits rather than any cultural difference.

• Baruti: The Storytellers. They regale the tales of lost heroes and places to any who listen in order to commune with the spirits and use elements of these legends and myths to improve their bodies temporarily or perform impressive feats based on the protagonists. Initially extremely culturally tied, most Baruti these days found that tales of Anansi and tales of Superman actually work just as well for their purposes, and many have moved from the oral tradition into ethnography, pop literature, novels, and horror stories. Usually with a historical bent to it of course.
• Ghost Wheel Society: The New School. While many Dreamspeakers call upon centuries of tribal and cultural study far away from large cities or nation-states, the Wheelers of the Ghost Wheel Society brought the basic concepts to the urban realm, and have become the arbiters of the modern era; they believe strongly that the old ways are dead if not dying, and must either be adapted for the current age or their form of magic will end entirely. As such, they've adapted their practices to work with technology, plastic, and metal in ways that the old ways could not possibly understand how to work. While useful, they're not very well liked historically as they've always had a bent towards little cults, fringe social movements, and living unsavory lives.
• Keepers of the Sacred Flame: The Old Masters. The Keepers are possibly the oldest faction, or even oldest form of "organized" magic in the World of Darkness, clinging to extremely formal, culturally enclosed, tightly memorized, and ancient methods of communing with spirits; often with frequent visits to the Umbra in order to do so. They believe they are only the most recent links on the chain in the longest and oldest tradition in the Dreamspeakers, and that their culture, like all culture, is the key to understanding the Spirits.
• Red Spear Society: The Spirit Warriors. The most "organized" of all Dreamspeakers due to their desire to kick ass and take names, existing as the entire tradition's "military arm". They imbue their weapons and themselves with awesome spiritual power through talismans, war dances, and synchronized rituals between more than one person. While they have allowed their fellow brethren to survive, they are not universally liked due to their extreme emphasis on martial prowess and inherently violent nature; some even find their use of war spirits anathema to their work and chase them out if they become too rowdy.
• Solitaires: The Outcasts. Because of the way Dreamspeaker magic works, it's entirely possible to receive no cultural or formal training in the Tradition in order to Awaken. When that happens, it usually produces a Solitaire. Solitaires are already loners or extremist spiritualists by nature and shy away from even rural society whenever they get the chance, to the point that many of them take up the call of the wild and adopt animals as their new "tribe", as it were. While their magic is generally quite slow, it's usually extremely powerful and most other Dreamspeakers respect them for their results, if not their outlook.
• Spirit Smiths: The makers and builders. Spirit Smiths come from an ancient cultural understanding that the ability to make something beautiful or useful out of hard rock and metal from the earth is a kind of magic unto itself, and the Spirit Smiths have spent the ages perfecting these secret arts from special spirits that can react to their rituals and create some really good stuff. Probably the smallest of all factions within the Dreamspeakers, as they now only number around 200, though they're very well organized.

Given that the Dreamspeakers Tradition represents for the most part a cross-cultural syncretic blend of various beliefs and cosmologies, it should go without saying that there are isolationist hardliners who choose to go off and form their own Crafts, often with only about ten people. Still, since they aren't the end-all-be-all of shamanism, they tend to mostly attract the more open minded pragmatic types. Notably absent for the most part are the spirit-focused practices of Voodoo and Santeria, practitioners of which almost always align themselves with the Bata'a craft instead. That said, relations between the two groups are fairly friendly.